Louis Maurer: “Progressive Democracy—Prospect Of A Smash Up” Cartoon

This 1860 cartoon highlighted the divisive presidential election taking place that year. The 1860 election was one of the most contentious in American history, in large part because of divisions in the country over the issue of slavery. The ultimate winner, Abraham Lincoln, was the nation’s first Republican president, but he won with less than 40 percent of the popular vote—and he was not even on the ballot in ten Southern slave states. The remainder of the vote was divided among three other candidates. Two were Democrats, but the Democratic Party was split between “Northern Democrats,” or Democrats from those states where slavery was largely opposed, and “Southern Democrats,” or those from states where slavery was an entrenched institution.